Sayings of Jesus about Wealth

15 Pentecost, C p 20, September 21, 2025
Amos 8:4-7. Psalm 1131

Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13

Lectionary Link

You cannot serve God and wealth!  The word of the Lord!

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to inherit the kingdom of God.   The word of the Lord!

If the wealthy cannot be saved then who can; with God all things are possible.  The Lord of the Lord!

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  The word of Lord!

Sell all that you have and follow me.  The word of the Lord!

To whom much is given, much is required.  The word of the Lord!

The poor you always have with you, but you will not always have me.  The word of the Lord!

Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic.  The word of the Lord!

Lay not up for yourself treasure on earth where moths corrupt and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.  The word of the Lord!

How might we frame the sayings of Jesus on wealth given that they probably came to writing in situations far from Palestine and many, many years after Jesus lived and they came to the early textual form in a different language than what Jesus spoke in his native tongue?

Do his sayings result in contradictions, the same kind of contradictions which occur because contexts can impart different and even seeming contradictory meanings to such words about wealth?

Why would one say that one is blessed to be poor?  Are these words to comfort people who actually are poor? 

I offer a variety of sayings about wealth from Jesus not to pretend that I know or understand some final or correct meaning, but simply to seek some insights for how you and I might grapple with what we regard wealth to be in our own experience and to ponder something that might be Christ worthy with the wealth of our lives.

Obviously, wealth is contextual and related to circumstances within human situations.  Wealth can be materially understood or spiritually understood.  The words of Jesus prove this distinction in the two versions of the beatitudes: blessed are the poor in spirit, and blessed are the poor.  One refers to a poverty of material conditions and the other refers to a poverty of the inner character as it pertains to the life of virtues.

The variance in the wording of the different beatitudes may indicate the nature of the economic status of the people to whom the words were addressed.

To whom might actual poverty be a blessing?  Any cursory reading of the New Testament indicates that John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early writers in the Jesus Movement understood that there would soon be an end of the world.  If the world is going to end soon, one does not need to plan for having creature comforts of homes and possessions and family.  St. Paul was an apocalyptic proclaimer as well who believed that those alive would soon be raised in the air with those who had died.  Therefore he recommended that people remain like he was, unmarried and unencumbered with family pressures, if they had the discipline to do so.

Wealth was seen as contextual for the evangelical missions for the persons who were sent out to proclaim the message of the kingdom of God.  Jesus told the evangelists to travel light and live as it were, off the kindness of the people who would receive their message.  Again the notion of having wealth was seen as being a hinderance to mission effectiveness.

The injunction against ownership and wealth was the impetus historically for creating two different tracks for Christian living.  Once the church was on its way of becoming successful, ordinary Christians were enjoined to follow the Ten Commandments; extra-ordinary and heroic Christians were enjoined to be more literal about the more spartan words of Jesus and Paul.  The monastic movement became a different track of Christian living as monks and nuns were to embrace the counsels of perfections which meant beyond the Ten Commandments, they were to commit to lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience to their clerical and religious community hierarchies.  Again another contextual understanding of wealth and relationship to wealth given the fact that the imminent end of the world did not happen and Christian people had to deal with reality of settling in with a new regard of the latter days, being merely that people would always be living in the latest days.

The Gospel words, you cannot serve God and wealth is set up with a parable of Jesus which encapsulates his assessment in contrasting how greedy people process desire and a wish for how the children of light might also process human desire.

The parable uses a negative example to make a rebuking judgment with an implied recommendation.  In the parable an embezzling employer knows that he's been caught and so he takes steps to ensure his future employment with his boss's debtors by forgiving them their debts.   Jesus commends the scheming embezzler as he wishes that the children of light were also as diligent in how they do life planning in having wisdom about the circumstances of their lives.

You can serve God and wealth.  But  only with an understanding that one can have wisdom to make the many forms of wealth in life to be used in the service of God and for what the kingdom of God might mean in bringing good news to the people in our lives.

The Gospel issue is not about pitting God against wealth or wealth against God; the issue is our relationship to God and wealth and that means that we need to avoid letting anything in this life becomes an idol which blocks the potentially worshipping energy of desire meant for God become  focused upon lesser objects.  The Gospel life, the life of transformation is the life of the sublimation of desire such that everything can be transparent pass through for our desire returning the energy of desire as the energy of worship of God.  In understanding our desire in this way, we are honest about the engine of desire in our lives, but we also acknowledge the need to channel it back to God while we let it pass through many necessary things in our lives for our daily use and enjoyment.  This kind of surfing of our desire allows us to combine enjoyment of life's necessities even as they assist our service to God and the benefit of our world.  In this way we let can work to make the wealth of the world serve God and the many people who need to know the benefit of a widely spread wealth.  Amen.

Sunday School, September 21, 2025 15 Pentecost C proper 20

 Sunday School, September 21, 2025    15 Pentecost C proper 20

Theme

You cannot serve God and wealth

What if you are hungry and you make yourself a sandwich to eat, but while you go to get some milk, someone takes your sandwich and eats it, how would you feel?

You might be upset.  Why?  Because you were the maker and the owner of that sandwich and someone took it without your permission and they ate it instead of you.

God made the world and so the world belongs to God.  What if people just take all of the things in this world without asking God, without thanking God and what if people just pretend that everything belongs to them and they ignore, forget or just plain steal from the owner.

You cannot serve God and wealth.  What is the solution to this problem?

You shall serve God with your wealth.  If we come to know that we are God’s sons and daughters and that we have inherited everything from God, then we will use all of our wealth for God’s family business.  What is God’s family business?  It is to make sure that everyone in God’s family is taken care of and so we use our wealth to take care of everyone in God’s family, including our God.

You cannot serve God and wealth.  We can think that this is hard and difficult choice or we can accept God as our Father and the creator and owner of the universe and if we believe this then we can happily use our wealth to serve God.

Think about how you and can use what God has given to us to serve God.

Sermon

What if you let me play with your Legos.  And while I was playing with your Legos, I decided that I would give some of them away to some of my friends.  And when you came to me to get your Legos back, I hand you a few Legos.  And you would ask me where are the rest of my Legos?  And I would say to you: Oh, I gave them to some of my friends.  What would you say, “Why did you do that?  They belonged to me.  You cannot give away something that does not belong to you.”  You would be upset wouldn’t you?

  What if one of you girls let your sisters play with five of your dolls.  And what if your sister decided to give a Barbie doll and a Snow White Doll away to her friends.  So when you came to get your dolls, there was only three dolls left?  How would you feel about your sister giving away two of your dolls?  Not very good.  You would say to your sister, “Why did you give my dolls away.  You had no right to do so.

  So you understand ownership?  When something belongs to you then you are the owner.  And what does it mean to be an owner?  It means that you have control over the things that you own.  It means that if you want to give your things away, you can but since you are the owner, you alone can choose.

  In our Gospel lesson, Jesus reminded his friends that God is the owner of everything.  Everything belongs to God because God made the world.  But God is a good maker.  God shared everything that was made with us. But when God shares everything with us he asks us to remember two things: First, remember that even though I share everything with you, I still am the owner of everything.  Second, since I share everything with you, then you need to share so that everyone has enough.

  That is why Jesus gave us two rules: Love God with all of our hearts.  That is how we recognize God as the owner of everything.  And love our neighbor as ourselves.  That is the rule of sharing.

  So how does God if some people have nothing to eat in this world and other people have so much to eat that they throw away good food?  How does God feel if some people have no home to live in and other people have five homes to live in?  How does God feel if some people have no clothes to wear and other people have a hundred dresses and shirts to wear?

  God the owner of life, who has shared everything with us, must feel very sad when some people have too much and other people have almost nothing.

  How can we correct this problem?  Love God and love our neighbor.  When we do this we remember that God is the owner of all things and we learn to use the good things that God gives us in the right way by learning to share and care for people who do not have enough.

  So today, let us remember that God is the owner of life.  And we need God’s help to know what to do with all of the good things that God shares with us.

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 21, 2025: The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Jesus in the Morning, If You’re Happy, Seek Ye First,  Let There Be Peace

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Jesus in the Morning   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 134)

1. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus at the noon time.  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down.

2. Love Him  3. Serve Him   4. Praise Him

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the First Letter to Timothy

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 113

Hallelujah! Give praise, you servants of the LORD; * praise the Name of the LORD.

Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, * from this time forth for evermore.

From the rising of the sun to its going down * let the Name of the LORD be praised.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: If You’re Happy  (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 124)

1-If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

2-Make a high five 3-Make a low five  4-Shout Amen!

Children’s Choral Anthem:

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All  may gather around the altar)

 Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Seek Ye First  (Blue Hymnal, # 711)

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.  And all these things will be added unto you, allelu, alleluia.  Refrain: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, allelu, alleluia.

Ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock, and the door shall be opened unto you;  Allelu, alleluia.  Refrain

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Let There Be Peace On Earth (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 251)

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.  Let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be.  With God as our Father, brothers all are we.  Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.  Let peace begin with me let this be the moment now.  With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow to take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.  Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! 

  

Being Lost as a Metaphor of Being Valued

14 Pentecost, Cp19, September 14, 2025
Exodus 32:7-14 Psalm 51:1-11
1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-10

Lectionary Link

The Gospel writers present Jesus as one who represents God who is a heavenly parent who wants everyone to be valued as a member of this universal family.

In the teaching parables of Jesus, he uses the metaphor of being lost.  What might be implied in this metaphor of being lost?

Something is lost because it is needed, valued, and useful to our lives.  If a person is lost, it means that person is valued by those who have lost the person.  One can note the panic that sets in when a young child is lost in a mall, a store, or a neighborhood.  Why the panic?  Because the lost child is a deeply valued member of the family.

One could expand this metaphor as a metaphor of insight for the entire human-divine situation.

If we propose that God is the heavenly parent and every human being is a valued child of God, something which our own Declaration of Independence asserts, we know that the actual human situation through history reveals that many, many, people have not and do not live in situations where they are valued and cared for.  This means that many people are lost, but maybe they aren't even lost, because no one is looking for them.  There are many people who are not valued enough in social situations even to attain the status of being lost.

The ministry and words of Jesus was to expose the situation of many people being uncared for, and especially by the religious leaders of his era.

Jesus came to raise the dignity of all people to state that many people were lost, that is, they had fallen through all the safety nets of any social care and were unrecognized and unworthy of dignity and value.

Along with the assertion by Jesus that many people were lost, and in being declared lost they were thus declared as valuable to God, Jesus came to be the supreme seeker of the lost.  He came to represent God as a seeker who valued people to reveal their identity of being members of God's family.

One can apply this same metaphor to the record of the Hebrew Scriptures.  God is the loving creator of all who made humans in the divine image.  The giving of the law can be understood as rules of recommended behaviors for people to treat each other in dignified ways so as to value their lives, and such behaviors are those which flow from honoring the parent God of the human family.

A good portion of the Hebrew Scriptures are in fact a bemoaning of people who do not honor the rules which protect the acceptance and dignity of people.  And by not honoring the best practices for human interaction, many, many people became lost to dignified treatment.

Jesus, in the train of the prophets of the Hebrew Scripture, came to declare the human situation of his time; many, many, people were alienated from the conditions of basic dignity and care.

Jesus came to be a seeker of the lost.  And in so doing, he was also declaring the nature of God as a caring parent, who was seeking the graceful reconciliation of people within the divine family, the family of all humanity.

St. Paul, is presented in the writings attributed to his corpus, and the writings about him, to be one who in his pre-conversion life misunderstood the message of Jesus and his followers.  When Paul was converted from his misunderstanding of God and Jesus, he became one who became an apostle to Gentiles, affirming that in Christ, there could not be "lost" Jews, Gentile, male, females, slave, or free; rather there was to be one family of God living under the beneficent care of God and this care was poignantly exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ.

For us today, we are to be in the ministry of Jesus, first by properly representing God as the parent of all who values all persons with dignity and the rights which indicate the dignity of being a loving and loved child of God.  Amen.

Sunday School, September 14, 2025 14 Pentecost C proper 19

Sunday School, September 14, 2025   14 Pentecost C proper 19

Sunday School Theme

The value of being lost

We do not look for things which are not important to us.  When something or someone is missing from our lives.  Our hearts want to find them and get them back into our lives.

What are things that you don’t like to lose?  Favorite toys.  People don’t like to lose their keys or their watches or their rings and other jewelry. 

What do we do when we lose something?  We try to find it because it is important to us.  We use it and it is valuable to us.

What about losing people?  The most painful loss of a person is when they die.  And then we cannot have them return to our lives.

Jesus said that God noticed that there were lots of lost people.  Who were these people lost to?  They were lost to the religious gatherings.  Many religious people did not even want to find lost people.  Jesus told his friends that there were many lost people who were important to God but they were not important to the people who would not invite them into their lives.

Jesus was criticized for eating with sinners.  But Jesus was trying to teach that the people called sinners were the lost people who needed to be found and brought into the family of God’s love.

Let us be careful about people we exclude from our lives.  We need to remember that God loves everyone, particularly those who do not know that they are loved and cared for by God.

Can we learn to be God’s detectives and God’s finder of the people who are lost because they are neglected by others.

Let us become a part of God’s army of finders who are doing search and rescue of the people who seem to be lost in this world because no one cares for them.

Sermon:

  Do you know one of the most frightening experiences in a family?  When a child is lost.  Sometimes a young child wanders away from the shopping cart and a child can get lost in a big store.  And mom and dad can get very worried.  They look and look until they find their lost child.

  There is one thing that is good about being lost.  Do you know what that is?  If someone or something is lost, it tells us that it is valuable.

  If you lose your watch or keys or toys, why do you look for them?  Because you want them, they are valuable to you.

  Jesus told stories about being lost.  And he did this to teach people that God values all people.  And if God values all people, then we too should value people who seem to be lost from finding enough food, health care or freedom in life.

  We are having a baptism today because baptism is a way of celebrating how valuable each person is to God and to our community.  Lily is very valuable to us, to her parents and family and this is what we are celebrating today.

  Baptism is a way of celebrating in this big, big world that God has found us because we are valuable to God.

  So we practice baptism as a way of sharing God’s love for everyone.  We do not want anyone to feel lost in this world.  We want everyone to feel valued by God and by special people in their family and in their community.

  Let us be thankful today that we don’t have to feel lost today.  God values us and God has found us.  And the way in which we celebrate our value to God and to each other as children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ is through Holy Baptism.

  We baptized today because we celebrate that God’s love has found us.  And so we do not ever have to feel lost in life because we belong to the family of Christ.

  Repeat: Thank you God for finding us and making us members of the family of Christ.  Amen.

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 14, 2025: The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Peace Before Us, I Am the Bread of Life, Dona Nobis Pacem, When the Saints

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Peace Before Us   (Wonder, Love and Praise, #  791)

1. Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.  Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

2. Love   3. Joy   4. Light   5. Christ

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, because without you we are not able to please you mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the First Letter to Timothy

But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 51

Make me hear of joy and gladness, * that the body you have broken may rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins * and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, * and renew a right spirit within me.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."  So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: I Am The Bread of Life (Blue Hymnal, # 335)

I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger; and they who believe in me shall not thirst.  No one can come to me unless the Father draw them.

Refrain:  And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, and I will raise them up on the last day.

The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world, and they who eat of this bread they shall live for ever, they shall live forever.  Refrain

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Dona Nobis Pacem  (Renew!, # 240)

Dona nobis pacem, pacem, dona nobis pacem.

Dona nobis pacem, dona nobis pacem.

Dona nobis pacem , dona nobis pacem.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: When the Saints God Marching In (Christian Children’s Songbook, #248)

O when the saints, go marching in, O when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number.  When the saints go marching in.

O when boys go marching in….

O when the girls go marching in…

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! 

New Family and New Family Values

13 Pentecost, Cp18, September 7, 2025
Jer. 18:1-18   Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
Philemon 1-20 Luke 14:25-33

Lectionary Link

Among the crowd of concert goers, a woman once approached the pianist Van Cliburn, and gushed, Mr. Cliburn, "I'd do anything to play like you play."  Supposedly Van Cliburn responded, "No lady, you wouldn't, especially practice."

Among the throngs of people who admired and followed Jesus around because he was the latest prophetic phenom on the scene apparently Jesus could hear them wishing out loud, "Jesus, I'd do anything to be like you."   And Jesus offered some rather harsh reality checks to these groupies who perhaps were treating him like the latest fad.

Remember the Gospel were written about life before the Risen Christ and the experience of an empowering Holy Spirit.  In this age people could aspire for great things only to be disillusioned to find that they could not live up to their aspirations.

Even among his special followers, Peter thought that he could follow Jesus through anything, and he even bragged about being able to do so.  But Peter denied Jesus when the going got tough.  Peter, before the experiences of the afterlife of Jesus and the experience of the Holy Spirit wanted to love Jesus but could not do it.

The words of Jesus in the Gospel about hating one's own family seem extreme unless we appreciate the hyperbole of comparison in the literary context.  Most people seem to think that they love their family members even though the situations of actual family life often prove to be rocky and uneven in how even family members struggle to live together well.

And if struggling family love is difficult, so difficult that there are often harshness of words and actions which seem to be more expressive of discord and hate; just imagine the kind of love needed to leave the comforts of family and follow an itinerate prophet who lives off the land and has none of the consistent comforts of a stable home life.

To love Jesus to be able to follow him, would make family relations seem like hatred in contrast.

The hyperbolic words of Jesus are reminder to people not to be too proud about their ability to follow Jesus.  And each of us might ponder the following:  If what St. Francis of Assisi did is definitive of what loving Jesus and following him means, then how are you and I doing?  In comparison, our love for Jesus might seem so trivial as to be a mockery, a hatred of sorts.

I would invite us to consider some insights from these shocking words of Jesus.  First, they confront us from following Jesus as simply the latest fad.  To follow Jesus as a mere religious fad is easy to do with the crowd.  For many, the religion of Jesus and the many evangelists who speak and perform in his name is like a circus act.  It is mere entertainment.  How many of the great religious crowds gather for the sheer entertainment of it all for the crowds?  How much of religion is "mob religion?"

The many disciplines of discipleship involves the consistent and repeated practice of goodness, and very hard love, very hard justice.  It involves the self denial of service.  It involves the perpetual checking of the ego at the door.  It involves sacrifice.  In the formation period of the early communities of the Jesus Movement, the love of Jesus often brought conflicting loyalties to previous family and friends.

Let us understand the rather stark words of Jesus about "hating one's family," as a reality check to a crowd of people who were being challenged about wanting religious entertainment contrasted with devotion to one who could bring about a significant change of values in their lives.

Let us also understand the programmatic and teaching impact of the Gospel writing written for people many decades after Jesus.

One can divide the lives of disciples into their lives before their encounter with the Risen Christ, and their lives after a mystical encounter with the Risen Christ.  One could not be a mere religious spectator of holy people, holy writings and holy places, after an encounter with the Risen Christ.  

St. Paul confessed that his life had been changed from a life of hating Jesus and his followers to a life of loving the Risen Christ and giving life for the service of the churches.  The result for Paul is that he knew Jesus to be the one who created a new and alternate family of God.  In this new family, Paul called Timothy and Philemon his brothers, Apphia, his sister, even as he called the runaway slave Onesimus, his son because Paul had become his spiritual father.  The following of Jesus Christ became an alternate lifestyle from the lifestyle of merely being in and having a natural family.

You and I can know a conversion to this new family of Christ and it can present quite a contrast to the kind of experience that we have in our natural families.  The love of God in Christ requires that we love profoundly beyond our local family ties as we accept our admission into a greater family, the one that is known when we discover the image of God upon our lives and the lives of all people.

The Psalmist wrote about the wonderful experience of being fully known by God.  In lovely poetry the Psalmist wrote about the encounter with God within his very being at the place where the image of God within him became apparent.

Today, let the shocking words of Jesus be a reality check to us about making our faith lives into but being spectators of religious entertainment.  Let us open ourselves to image of God rising to be known in us as an encounter with the Risen Christ through the power of Holy Spirit.  And let this experience initiate us continually in loving values of the family of God in Christ.  Amen.